Author Topic: WHATIZIT? Give it a shot. (Read 1399 times)

CHARLIE · « **on:** April 04, 2006, 09:34:15 am »

I saw this small tree at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington DC last week. It really caught my eye and the label said it grew in North America. Where....I haven't a clue. Can you guess what it is?

I'll post the label later if no one can figure it out.

Most of the tree, except the portion of the trunk that had the label on it.

A closer look of the trunk.

Can ya guess what kind of tree it is?

Riles · « **Reply #1 on:** April 04, 2006, 08:55:48 pm »

Zanthoxylum clava-herculis, Hercules club or Devil's walking stick. Saw it for the first time Monday in Pathology class. Supposedly grows around here in the ArklaTex, but I haven't seen it.

Minnesota_boy · « **Reply #2 on:** April 04, 2006, 09:00:07 pm »

Looks like something with a bad disease that needs to be eradicated.

Texas Ranger · « **Reply #3 on:** April 05, 2006, 08:46:20 am »

It grows in Texas, it is the one that is only found when you jump the creek, miss your footing, and have to grab the nearest handhold to keep from falling in the creek. You usually end up falling in the creek.

Riles got it.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #4 on:** April 05, 2006, 08:51:24 am »

Yup, looks like the devils walking stick. Another plant/shrub even worst is the devils club, with it's stems and leaves both lined with sharp needle-like spines. As TxRngr said, every time you go to fall or make a fast downward plung you grab a mit full of spines.

Devil's club I know is in the ginger family, not sure about the stick.

sawguy21 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 05, 2006, 08:54:37 am »

Having worked on the coast, you certainly would have seen your share of that DanG stuff.

CHARLIE · « **Reply #6 on:** April 05, 2006, 04:45:20 pm »

Riles wins 'cause he was sooooo close! His guess was the Southern Prickly Ash and this tree pictured is the Northern Prickly Ash (Xanthoxylum fraxineum, X. Americanum, X. Carolinianum) commonly called the Toothache Tree. It has a LOT of medicinal values.

Read about it:
http://www.vtsurvey.com/toothache_tree.htm

Texas Ranger, it's not the Devil's Walking Stick. I did a search on that and it's a different type of thorny tree ( devils walking-stick Aralia spinosa Araliaceae).
http://www.sfws.auburn.edu/samuelson/dendrology/araliaceae_pg/devils_walk_stick.htm

Riles, for winning you get free 500 points to use when you mess up at home and lose points.

Thanks for playing!

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #7 on:** April 05, 2006, 05:16:08 pm »

I don't know if any of you guys have noticed before, but on white ash...if you get a dead tip on a tree branch it turns prickly. I don't know if it is a disease or what happens. It's kinda wierd because ash usually doesn't have anything prickly on it anywhere. $:-\$

beenthere · « **Reply #8 on:** April 05, 2006, 07:58:38 pm »

Not quite like the prickly's on the prickly ash. Here is a picture up close.

prickle on prickly ash

It's about as tough to walk through and make it back out as the multiflora rose bush.

Texas Ranger · « **Reply #9 on:** April 05, 2006, 09:45:13 pm »

Not to argue, Charlie, but the names are interchangable in the south, to a certain extent. there are redily identifiable differences between the two, but non botanical types sort of bunch them together. Kinda what swampdonkey is saying, he has one called Devils Club (Aralia) that is what we call the devils walking stick, usually never gets very big and grows in patches. Hercules club is our version of your sample, and usually singular.

Which brings to mind something else about language and use of same in the south. In the Ozarks where I grew up some of the back woods types called scorpians, stinging lizards. Go figure.

CHARLIE · « **Reply #10 on:** April 05, 2006, 11:24:53 pm »

OK T. Ranger you convinced me so I'm giving you 250 points to use when you need them.

Texas Ranger · « **Reply #11 on:** April 06, 2006, 11:55:29 am »

Thanks, but being a Texan, don't need points with the wife, need points with the son in laws. Language always amuses me, how it changes in relatively short distances and times. Texans tend to have their own.

Tom · « **Reply #12 on:** April 06, 2006, 12:39:02 pm »

Don!! Are you owning up to Texans having a short "anything"?

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #13 on:** April 06, 2006, 01:43:14 pm »

Tommie, Tommie, Tommie.

Texas Ranger · « **Reply #14 on:** April 06, 2006, 03:47:17 pm »

come on, Tom, relatively short. Like, I can drive to Jacksonville, Florida, and have the wive leave at the same time for El Paso. I'll be in Jacksonville eatin one of your steaks before she gets cloes to El Paso. Why, durn near another time zone. Take another shot to Texline on the New Mexico border up in the Pan Handle like we go to Colorado, and it's a 800 mile trip.

Got one of them steakes with my name on it?

Riles · « **Reply #15 on:** April 06, 2006, 05:43:11 pm »

Ironically enough, we got Aralia spinosa in dendrology class just this afternoon. He called it devils-walkingstick. Now if I can just get dendrology to agree with pathology, we can start on the rest of the world. (Trivia fact for the day, it has the largest leaves of any plant growing in Louisiana, up to 10 feet).

Common names are a constant source of irritation as I try to cross check everything. He changed huckleberry to Elliot blueberry and French mulberry to American beautyberry in just the last couple of weeks. Even when you think you've reached consensus on name, you have disagreements on spelling. Note that I spelled it devils-walkingstick and not Devil's walking stick. And Elliot blueberry not Elliot's blueberry. The teacher grading the quiz every week is always right. $:-\$

The whole point of learning the scientific name was to avoid the confusion over common names. Who keeps changing the common names and why should I have to start my dendro class all over again? (And why do they keep changing the scientific names!)

Dendro is kicking my rear end around this quarter.

Tom · « **Reply #16 on:** April 06, 2006, 06:10:34 pm »

I don't envy you Riles. It's not only the subject that changes but school is so much different than real life too. It's a wonder any of us get out of this life with our minds intact.

Don, If you were to show up, I'd make a point of finding one. Even if I had to "rustle" it up.

Texas Ranger · « **Reply #17 on:** April 07, 2006, 11:27:24 am »

Riles, don't feel bad, dendro I, fall hardwoods, drove me nuts to the point where I took it twice.

Anyway, cruising hurricane damage this morning, and there in my path was a patch of devils walking stick, Texas style. And since my lovely wife provided me with a cell phone with a camera (camera was secondary, she was interested in keeping a leash on her boy) I took some pictures of Aralia.

Riles · « **Reply #18 on:** April 07, 2006, 08:47:11 pm »

Ironically, I got an "A" in Dendro I, but the prof is taking perverse delight in finding the extreme examples of every species this time. I blew the ID on Berchemia scandens because it didn't even look like a vine.

Come to think of it, I ought to bring my camera along and kick these mutants back to Tom and DanG for a little fun. I seem to recall DanG's walking tour of his yard last year.

Buzz-sawyer · « **Reply #19 on:** April 07, 2006, 08:53:47 pm »

All I can say is watch yourself...that Dang will give what for if ya dont properly identify those wacky weeds in his yard...he called em browns, or greens or sumptin?!?!?

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Author Topic: WHATIZIT? Give it a shot. (Read 1399 times)